Section 6 Inadmissible

• Library: Damages 2012

In Nichols v. Blake, 395 S.W.2d 136, 142 (Mo. 1965), the plaintiff offered evidence concerning the earnings of his equipment company, a corporation organized by himself three years before the injury. He testified that “[w]hat the company earns I earn.” This was too speculative.

In Sparling v. Hoard, 380 S.W.2d 940, 942–43 (Mo. App. E.D. 1964), the plaintiff was a commercial artist in business for himself. He testified that he was away from his business completely for four weeks and part of the time for three or four months following the accident. He had a job with one company in each of the two preceding years that paid approximately $1,800 to $2,000 a year, but he gave no estimate of the “net” profit from that work. He testified that on the day before the accident he had been contacted by a representative of that company regarding a third job, but negotiations broke off when he was hospitalized. The court held that all of the foregoing was too speculative, noting that the...